Technology whereby an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer is connected to a Web server via a network, and an operation screen that is provided from the Web server is displayed on a Web browser of the information processing apparatus is known. In this case, the Web browser of the information processing apparatus requests an operation screen from the Web server. Then, in response to the request from the Web browser, a Web application stored in the Web server returns HTML data for allowing the Web browser to display an operation screen to the Web browser as a response. The Web browser analyzes the received HTML data and displays an operation screen based on the description in the HTML data. Furthermore, when a user inputs an instruction through the operation screen displayed on the Web browser, the Web browser notifies the Web server of the input instruction. Then, the Web application of the Web server that has received the notification executes processing according to the input instruction.
Moreover, these days, some MFPs (Multi Function Peripherals) that are equipped with a scanner, a printer, and the like have a Web browser as described above, and such an MFP displays an operation screen that is provided from a Web server on the Web browser of the MFP and accepts various types of instructions from the user through the above-described procedure (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-127503 (Patent Document 1)). The instructions input by the user are notified to the Web server by the Web browser of the MFP. The Web server that has received the notification requests the MFP to execute various types of processing according to the content of the instructions input by the user. Then, the MFP that has received this request executes the requested processing. Thus, it is no longer necessary to hold all of the menu data for operating the MFP in the MFP, and a change to the menu data can be easily made on the Web server.
Generally, when the Web application of the Web server executes processing based on an instruction input through an operation screen displayed on the Web browser of the MFP, a new operation screen is displayed on the Web browser in response to completion of the processing by the Web application. That is to say, upon completion of the processing by the Web application, the Web server generates HTML data for a notification screen that notifies the user of the completion of the processing or an operation screen that allows the user to perform the next operation. Then, the generated HTML data is transmitted to the Web browser as a response to the request from the Web browser. On the other hand, in some Web browsers that are installed in information processing apparatuses such as PCs and MFPs, a time limit (a timeout period) within which a response from a Web server is to be received after a request is transmitted to the Web server is set. If there is no response from the Web server within the timeout period, the Web browser performs a process for nullifying the transmitted request (a timeout process). As a result of the timeout process, the Web browser stops waiting for a response to the transmitted request and is ready to transmit a new request, for example. At this time, in some cases, a process for abandoning the actual session is performed to release the resources of the Web browser.
In the above-described Patent Document 1, when the user inputs an instruction through an operation screen displayed on the Web browser of the MFP, the Web browser transmits a request based on that instruction to the Web server, and the Web server transmits a processing result (a new processing request), which is a response to the request, to the Web browser in the form of HTML data.
However, if a predetermined period of time has elapsed without any instruction being input by the user after the display of the operation screen on the Web browser, the timeout process is automatically executed, so that the response transmitted from the Web server cannot be normally received by the Web browser of the MFP. Thus, the user cannot be notified of the result of the processing executed by the MFP.